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Monday, 20 October 2014

Rik Mayall.

A bit late I know, but as Rik would say
- 'piss off, who cares'. I'm not going to try and spin you a yarn –
I'm just going to tell you the facts.

I didn't know
Rik - I'm just another fan who never met him. I was brought up on 80s and 90s British comedy, so
it shouldn’t be a surprise that from the ages of seven to
fourteen, I wanted to be Rik Mayall. The first comedy
script I remember writing was an episode of Bottom. I was about
10 at the time, did it with another boy who had the same fixation with it as
me. We’d write it, act it out – brilliant fun. The script itself was shit, but
it was brilliant fun. Around the same time I had a lot of
confidence issues. I was an insecure little kid, always nervous about
the next day, thinking ahead of all the things that could go wrong.
Quoting and repeating put-downs I heard on Bottom to bullies was my
only defence in an all-boys secondary school that felt like some kind
of dystopian prison. My group of
friends at that school were all Bottom fans - that was our common ground. In 2003, I
saw Bottom live in Hammersmith with two of those friends, who
cosplayed as Richie and Eddie for the evening. It was the final tour
that Rik and Ade Edmondson would ever do together, so I’m glad I
saw them perform together when I had the chance.

My plays have been compared to Bottom
on more than one occasion, which I can only take a great compliment. Rik Mayall's work on The Young Ones, The
Comic Strip, Blackadder had a profound influence on
not just my writing, but my sense of humour, who my friends are, my
career, and my personality. If Rik Mayall hadn’t have been
a thing, I may have ended up an accountant. Close shave. Recently, I bought The New Statesman
box set, and it’s like discovering Rik all over again. His
effortless charisma, his paranormal comic timing, his presence –
this man could make anything funny. I can’t imagine how amazing it
would have been to work with him, or even just going for a pint with the one-man comedy tornado that was Rik.

Rik is the first
of my personal heroes to die, and he won't be the last, but he just might be
the greatest comedian who ever lived. No-one was a good as Rik in his
prime.